Many questions, few answers surrounding vaccine religious exemptions

ORLANDO, Fla. — Central Florida is at the center of a murky new fight over the United States’ newest First Amendment concern: religious exemptions for vaccine mandates.

On paper, the rules and allowances for the mandate are clear. First, freedom of religion is enshrined in the US Constitution, meaning these exemptions are required and legal.

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Second, the exemptions should only be given for people who have a sincerely held belief that vaccinations or medical care in general puts a splinter between worshipper and God.

“They may need to get a letter or note from their spiritual advisor or pastor stating that the mask or the vaccine runs counter to one of the tenants in their faith,” employment attorney Daniel Pérez explained.

Again, at first glance this is a clear boundary, especially since the leaders of most major religions have approved of the vaccine or at least said they were willing to look past moral concerns due to its life-saving capabilities.

Religious freedom advocates, however, say a belief can only be determined by the person praying.

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“That particular belief does not have to be consistent with or affirmed by a clergy or Rabbi or denomination or church. That is completely irrelevant,” Mathew Staver said. “It is only relevant what that particular individual believes as their sincerely held religious belief.

Staver is the founder of the Liberty Counsel, an Orlando-based organization that advocates for traditional Christian values and religious freedom. He said the attorneys in his organization have fielded thousands of phone calls from people worried about vaccine mandates, starting in July.

Staver said employers or schools cannot question the beliefs presented to them in exemption forms. The only question they are legally allowed to consider is the person’s sincerity.

READ: What’s required for a vaccine exemption, and why you can lose your job if you get one

He added that his organization has had to weed out people who were trying to use religion as an excuse to get an opt-out when they were motivated by politics or fear. Since people have to explain their beliefs in writing, he said it was fairly obvious which category a person fell into.

Those with sincere beliefs, he reported, were people who considered their bodies to be in the image of God, as well as people who were concerned about the vaccines’ use or ties to stem cell lines created from abortions in the 1960′s.

For most jobs, he said employers should be able to work with their employees.

“There’s lots of ways to accommodate those individuals, and I believe they should,” he said.

READ: Orange County school board weighs options for increased COVID-19 safety protocols

On the other side of the spectrum are people like Rev. Terri Steed Pierce, the senior pastor of the LGBTQ+ focused Joy Metropolitan Community Church in Orlando.

Pierce held a vaccination clinic for more than 500 community members at her church earlier this year and is an advocate for the shots.

Like others who take a similar view, she said her views were formed by the Bible’s core tenet of loving thy neighbor.

“Jesus said the law was boiled down to loving God and loving neighbor,” she explained. “All those other things that we get tripped up on I think are sometimes semantics, and sometimes we nitpick it.”

However, she agreed with Staver that each person must make their own decision and be guided by their individual faith.

READ: Quarantining students lead to school disruption for thousands in Central Florida

She also hoped that the topic of vaccines would become less politicized, even as she predicted the forthcoming battle would split Americans even more.

“I think if we simply looked out for what’s best for most people, instead of trying to align ourselves politically or religiously or whatever, I think the world would be better off,” she said.

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Cox Media Group